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Merlin the Magician (TTT episode)
Summary After being transported away from 13th century China in the previous episode, Project Tic-Toc personnel find Tony Newman and Doug Phillips frozen in time, yet it was not because of their doing. Being trapped in a dangerous state (the scientists will die if they are not brought out of the time freeze very quickly) does not last for long, as everyone in Project Tic-Toc suddenly becomes frozen too. A mysterious person in black then appears, floats down from a platform and walks around the floor, summoning Newman and Phillips to the facility with a few hand motions, hypnotizes them to do whatever he commands them to do, then sends them to another time period as he claims he is Merlin of the Round Table. He then unfreezes Project Tic-Toc personnel, warning them that he is a sorcerer and to not touch any of the consoles in trying to bring Newman and Phillips back, then causes Dr. Raymond Swain to disappear and reappear onto a table as proof of his powers. Meanwhile, as Newman and Phillips are trying to come to terms of their new time period, they are ambushed by a couple of Vikings. They are able to get away, then are approached by who would later become King Arthur, who asks them to join his army to defeat the invading Vikings. They refuse, but then Merlin appears and commands them to join, which they do pledge loyalty to Arthur then. They are then lead away by Arthur, but they are found by a bigger party of Vikings, who stab Phillips and take Newman and Arthur captive. Project Tic-Toc personnel are stunned to see what they assume was the death of Phillips. They were able to confirm that Newman is still alive, who is able to free himself, then later extracts some information from a guard to tell him where Arthur is being held, then frees him. Phillips is also shown, being tended to by the future Queen Guinevere, as he is very wounded, but then Merlin appears and commands Phillips to get up, which his wound is suddenly gone. Project Tic-Toc also try to switch Newman and Phillips, but when the scientists try, an explosion from a control panel prevents them from doing so, injuring Swain. Unfortunately Newman and Arthur gets captured again, and Phillips is followed by Guinevere, who knows a way to find them. Later, with Newman being freed and Phillips preparing for war, it is said that the only thing that scares Vikings are other Vikings, which once more Merlin shows up and makes all the soldiers have Viking apparel as one last magic act for them to hopefully be successful in battle. Background information/trivia *This is the second time the supernatural was touched on during the series (the other time being in “''The Ghost of Nero''” episode). *This episode had several firsts in it, as it was the only time during the series where Newman and Phillips were brought back to Project Tic-Toc (although only very briefly). Swain also got injured for the first time ever, it is revealed that The Time Tunnel has “channels”, as Swain gave a call to maintenance at one point to run a check on channels “one hundred” through “infinity”, along with it being the first time a Project Tic-Toc scientist was taken to another time period, as Dr. Ann MacGregor was kidnaped at the end by an alien who had suddenly materialized out of nowhere. Every show also ended with a freeze frame of whatever new mess Newman and Phillips had gotten themselves into, but here it ended with Swain and Heywood Kirk finding a computer card the alien had dropped and they were attempting to find out if it was compatible with their equipment. Cast *James Darren as Dr. Tony Newman *Robert Colbert as Dr. Doug Phillips *Lee Meriwether as Dr. Ann MacGregor *John Zaremba as Dr. Raymond Swain *Whit Bissell as Lt. General Heywood Kirk *Vincent Beck as Wogan *Christopher Cary as Merlin *Lisa Jak as Guinevere *Jim McMullan as King Arthur Links The episode can be viewed at Hulu.com at The Time Tunnel channel Category: The Time Tunnel episodes